Queen Esther Marrow to take the stage
Summer jazz series coming to the Peninsula
Queen Esther Marrow — the Newport News singer who has shared the stage with the likes of Martin Luther King, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan — will do her first full show on the Peninsula in a decade this summer.
Marrow, 78, is one of the headliners for a music event in July at The American Theatre in Hampton, presented by local jazz bandleader, broadcaster and promoter Jae Sinnett.
The Phoebus Jazz Summer Music Series, on July 13 and 20, will feature nationally known acts including some with roots in Hampton Roads.
Marrow recently appeared at a couple of shows on the Peninsula paying tribute to Franklin, her longtime friend who died last year. Her last full performances under her own billing in the region came in 2008 and 2009 at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News.
“It’s really exciting for me, because so many people don’t know that I’m living at home,” said Marrow, who returnedtoafamilyhome inthe Southeast Community in 2002 after several decades living in New York. “A lot of people think I still live in Europe or somewhere else, so this is really nice.”
Marrow, whose first major professional exposure came with Duke Ellington, still tours and generally uses large bands and choirs. In Phoebus, she will play a more stripped-down show, backed by Sinnett on drums and one or two bandmates.
“They’renotmymusicians and they don’t know my style, but if you can play and you can sing, you can come together,” Marrow said. “I’m going to do some jazz things and some blues, and of course I’ve got to do what got me into the jazz, which is Duke Ellington’s ‘Come Sunday.’ That was the man and that was the song. We’re going to have some fun.”
The July 13 show will include performances by renowned trumpeter Randy Brecker, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and Virginia Beach native Justin Kauflin, who has recorded albums with Quincy Jones. Sinnett will back those artists on drums, alongside bass player Terry Burrell.
Marrow will perform July 20, as will Sinnett’s “Zero to 60” band featuring Burrell, sax player Ralph Bowen and pianist Allen Farnham.
Tickets, planned for $39.50 per show, are expected to go on sale this week through Ticketmaster and at the theater’s box office.
Sinnett, the prolific composer and bandleader who also hosts his show “Sinnett in Session” on local NPR station WHRV-FM 89.5, said he wanted to present more pure jazz music in the area.
“One of my first goals is to do something for that community and the businesses on Mellen Street,” Sinnett said. “But most importantly, to bring some jazz, man — straight-up jazz in a professional context where the music is listened to and cherished and respected and represented on a very high artistic level.”
He said he particularly likes the American as a venue for traditional jazz shows.
“It’s perfect,” he said. “The acoustics are compatible. There’s not a bad seat in the house.”
As with Marrow, the show will be something of a homecoming for Kauflin, a 33-yearold pianist who grew up in Virginia Beach and spent many years with Sinnett as a teacher and a key influence.
He currently lives in Long Beach, Calif., and is looking forward to playing his first full show in Hampton Roads in several years.
His 2018 album is titled “Coming Home,” but he said the name does not refer specifically to Hampton Roads, but rather with the comfort level he has achieved in recent years while touring the world.
“I feel like my consciousness of home has shifted, and I wanted to share that,” Kauflin said by phone from a tour stop in Iowa. “It has to do with travel, and how other cities used to feel so foreign but now they’re very comfortable. But Virginia Beach will always be home to me.”
Kauflin said he has met Brecker before, at an event where he was playing with Sinnett, and he recalls seeing Chestnut at the Roper Performing Arts Center in Norfolk in 2002.
“This is going to be interesting — not just coming home, but sharing the stage with so many great people,” Kauflin said. “When I’ve played with Jae in the past it’s been a trio or a quartet. This is something different, like ‘The Jae Sinnett Variety Show.’ I’m really looking forward to it.” Mike Holtzclaw, 757-928-6479, mholtzclaw@ dailypress.com, Twitter @mikeholtzclaw.